A letter to TheSixtyOne

Posted on Jan 21, 2010 in webernets

I have sent this email to help@thesixtyone.com and I am posting it here as an open letter.

First off, I would like to state that I could not find contact information on the new design and had to resort to the older design to figure out where to send this email.

The new design has removed key components of the site’s functionality – I’m aware that you may be ignoring your facebook page, and therefore will likely ignore this email as well, but I felt I must say something.

I can no longer view my friend’s pages or the music they have saved

I can no longer comment on anyone’s page, be they artists or other listeners

I no longer have comments on my page, either on my listener or artist account

I can no longer access my listener group

I can no longer simply save a song. On that same note, there are some listeners with 200+ songs, and if they want to keep them, they have to spend hours tagging if they want to keep listening to the music.

I can no longer listen to someone else’s radio, or even my own.

I can no longer search for new music

I can no longer see a list of music I have not already tagged and saved – no lists of music in genres, on Just For You, Hottest or the like.

I can no longer see who is subscribed to me, subscribe to someone else, or indeed, listen to music I’ve subscribed to

The site has lost almost all functionality with this design. If there were drop-down menus, if there was still a comments section, if a thousand things you took away were still available in some form, the design would be perfectly fine. But you have removed all ability to use the site other than to simply stream music. If I wanted that, I’d use any number of other sites. Your site was unique and perfect. If it’s not broken, you don’t fix it. You have rendered the site unusable, and are ignoring your user-base’s complaints.

As someone commented on your Facebook page, you have emulated a classic mistake once made by the Coca Cola company – the redesign is New Coke. We do not like it.

Offer the new design as an optional ‘fullscreen’, use it as an alternative interface somehow, that’s perfectly fine. But you are going to lose 5,000+ listeners this way, and you will not get them back.

Signed,

A previously avid supporter and active promoter of your website, Lona Nicholle

First off, I would like to state that I could not find contact information on the new design and had to resort to the older design to figure out where to send this email.

The new design has removed key components of the site’s functionality – I’m aware that you may be ignoring your facebook page, and therefore will likely ignore this email as well, but I felt I must say something.

I can no longer view my friend’s pages or the music they have saved

I can no longer comment on anyone’s page, be they artists or other listeners

I no longer have comments on my page, either on my listener or artist account

I can no longer access my listener group

I can no longer simply save a song. On that same note, there are some listeners with 200+ songs, and if they want to keep them, they have to spend hours tagging if they want to keep listening to the music.

I can no longer listen to someone else’s radio, or even my own.

I can no longer search for new music

I can no longer see a list of music I have not already tagged and saved – no lists of music in genres, on Just For You, Hottest or the like.

I can no longer see who is subscribed to me, subscribe to someone else, or indeed, listen to music I’ve subscribed to

The site has lost almost all functionality with this design. If there were drop-down menus, if there was still a comments section, if a thousand things you took away were still available in some form, the design would be perfectly fine. But you have removed all ability to use the site other than to simply stream music. If I wanted that, I’d use any number of other sites. Your site was unique and perfect. If it’s not broken, you don’t fix it. You have rendered the site unusable, and are ignoring your user-base’s complaints.

As someone commented on your Facebook page, you have emulated a classic mistake once made by the Coca Cola company – the redesign is New Coke. We do not like it.

Offer the new design as an optional ‘fullscreen’, use it as an alternative interface somehow, that’s perfectly fine. But you are going to lose 5,000+ listeners this way, and you will not get them back.

Signed,

A previously avid supporter and active promoter of your website, Lona Nicholle